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What 📔book are you reading right now?

Firawyn said:
Ah ha! I have found another Nix fan! Have you read the other two books in that series? Lariel and Abhorsan? Oh dear lord I love that series.
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I adore it! I also liked Mister Monday, but I still haven't gotten around to reading the rest of them (augh!). But I still have one of the pins that the YA Reading Group at Readerville made before Abhorsen came out--they had a picture of Mogget on them and said 'Society for Those Eagerly Awaiting Abhorsen'.

I finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay a few weeks ago--it was amazing, deserved its Pulitzer, though the last third of it threw me for a loop. Everything pulled together at the end, though. Now I'm reading Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones--I'm not very far into it, but I can already see how much Michael Chabon borrowed directly from actual history.

I'm also reading Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Debi Caleti, which is fabulous--I love the narrator's voice--and The Frog Prince: A Fairy Tale for Consenting Adults by Stephen Mitchell, which is also lovely.

It's a good thing I don't work this week, because all of my library books are due in five days.
 
Barliman Butterbur said:
... a resident of The Netherlands, one of the countries which heaped total adoration on Abba (and still does as far as I know) ...
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Mainly because of the adoration here, I'm afraid. Should I inform you there was a musical made here, featuring all the famous abba songs? I'm not sure if it originated here, or abroad.

Mama Mia, it was called. Now that's worth an

The fact that U2 makes great music, does not mean I have to follow their taste, now does it?

I'm not really getting much reading done at the moments, criminal law and quality control are subjects I'm supposed to take exams in tomorrow.
 
DGoeij said:
Should I inform you there was a musical made here, featuring all the famous abba songs? I'm not sure if it originated here, or abroad.

Mama Mia, it was called. Now that's worth an
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I am very much aware of Mamma Mia, and I've seen generous snippets of it on television here. It's played all over the world in all the major languages and is still going strong. I'm not sure that it originated in The Netherlands — I think it originated in Sweden, under the loving supervision of Benny and Bjorn, and then broke in Britain. Alas, I've no desire to see more of it, I prefer the original group.

Good luck in your exams, Counselor!

Barley
 
Barliman Butterbur said:
I'm not sure that it originated in The Netherlands — I think it originated in Sweden, under the loving supervision of Benny and Bjorn, and then broke in Britain.
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Yes, this is correct. They were indeed involved in the production. I haven't seen it, nor am I likely too as I have no fondness for either musicals or ABBA. I never really did take to them, even though I'm Swedish and I grew up in the same town as Björn Ulvaeus. I actually have this vivid memory of seeing the whole group there when I was young, but as I also remember them wearing more or less stage clothes, I suspect it to be a very muddled memory.
 

I'm not sure how old you are — were Abba your parent's generation? My impression is (from reading Carl Palm's book) that Abba was not as popular in Sweden as they were in other European countries — is that right?

Barley
 
They're more or less my generation, although I was quite young when the became popular. So I do know that they were well liked by children and teenagers at least, but so were many other groups. I can't recall that there was much hysteria involved in Sweden, but that might be a national trait. We don't, as a group, like to make spectacles of ourselves.
 
I just finished Dumas' classic "The Three Musketeers" for the first time, and I highly recommend it. Now I am on to revisiting our old friend Tolkien for the first time in nearly 2 years...but more specifically, "The Silmarillion" for the first time in nearly 5 years...I look forward to relearning everything I've forgotten.
 
"On the Other Side of the Sunrise" - in English it will be called so.
Actually this is in Russian. It is a detailed story about Beren, Luthien and all folks of those time during the War. I know that it's not translated in English yet, but I hope it will be soon.
But if someone who understands Russian is interested in it, I can send this story in .doc format
 
I picked up The Saint of Dragons by Jason Hightman at the library the other day, because the premise and the first page had great potential, but at 60 pages I'm ready to drop it. Poorly drawn characters, unimpressive writing.

I'm also re-reading Sunshine by Robin McKinley, which I am loving all over again, and reading snatches of Bradbury Speaks, a collection of Ray Bradbury's essays, in the bathroom.
 
The Three Musketeers is such a great book... one of my all time favourites. Such a shame that no film has ever done it justice. I had a great Tolkien RP ready to go, based on The Three Musketeers. It was set well into the Fourth Age of Middle Earth... a few centuries after the Orcs invented Gunpowder... one of my greatest regrets on this forum is never having the chance to do it. It was called 'The King's Musketeer' and set during the reign of Elessar XIII. Turgon Took was the D'artagnan character, the eldest son of the Took family... being a direct descendant of Pippin himself... who, fulfilling the family tradition for the eldest son of the Thain, had to head south to Gondor, and give service to the king.

Meh... but I waffle... the Aramis character was really cool though. He was to be called Aramir... an elf that still lingered in Middle-earth. But instead of the whole deal with Aramis... I'm going to become a priest and such... I had Aramir saying... one day I will leave Middle-earth and take the straight road into the west.

*sighs*

Why did nobody take me up on this RP?

I had foot notes and everything...

But anyway... my original point was... I've just finished reading 'Captain Alatriste' by Arturo Perez-Reverte... a must for all Musketeer fans. Cracking read... and the first in a series.

If you like your swashes buckled you MUST read this book.
 
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I'm still re-reading Sunshine, but I've set aside Bradbury Speaks for now so that I can work through some of my library books--Swan Sister: Fairy Tales Retold, a collection edited by Terri Windling (I want to be her when I grow up) and Ellen Datlow, and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which got glowing reviews from almost everyone I know last year, and which deserved every one of them. It's fabulous.
 
Right now I'm reading lots of Reginald Hill. They are really good and there are so many of them that I'm in no danger of running out for some time yet.
 
I'm reading Jaran by Kate Elliot. I haven't read much science fiction lately, but I'm really enjoying this.
 
Ooh... I absolutely loved Jonathan Strange & Mister Norrell. I've not enjoyed a book so much since, well, way back when. I've recently finished Baudolino by Umberto Eco, which was brilliant as always, and The Crimson Petal and the White by (I think) Michael Faber, which was in turn both excellent and exasperating.

Time to turn my attention back to This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson, which is the story of Charles Darwin's friendship with Robert Fitzroy. I was getting quite involved in this book a couple of months back, and then suddenly hit a wall with it. I really need to press on.
 
Anyone have any book suggestions for Irish folklore and legends? I've been looking for one here, and well, we have a draught of Irish books. Mostly american and british authors. Ever since I've read in the Country of the Young I've been addicted to anything irish but couldn't get my hands on anything. Not here.

So if any of you have any suggestions...I'd appreciate it.
 
Fiction or non-fiction, Narya? I can think of a few books that are based on Irish legends and folklore, but not any non-fiction books that are specific to them.
 
I'm reading The Willing Flesh by Willi Heinrich. Its a German account of his experiences written into fiction by a soldier who was on the Russian front in World War 2. The movie Cross of Iron and many of its characters was based on this book.
 
The Elric Saga, Volume II (I already read all the stories in Volume I eralier in life, though they weren't in the two-book hardcover set i just bought.)

I laso bought the entire Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander, so I'll be moving onto that as well.

(I know I'm not supposed to be reading for pleasure in university...but I'm a bilbliophile. I can't help it.)
 
Just finished Timeline by Michael Crichton. Quite good. Now I'm onto Lion Of Macedon by the late, great David Gemmell.
 
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